With the continuous efforts that are being made to find new sources of renewable energy, fresh innovative techniques for generating power are coming up.

Recently, it has been found that an ordinary variety of berries can help towards making solar energy more popular and cheaper. By making use of these berries, it will be possible to consume solar energy at a price that will be as cheap as the fossil fuels being used now.

According to the research, when solar cells are coated with a dye made from pokeberries, it enhances the ability of these cells to absorb the sunlight by a great extent.

The popularity of solar energy is increasing at a faster rate due to the fact that it is sustainable, requires little maintenance once installed, and requires no additional investment once the unit is installed.

Photovoltaic (PV) cells are mainly used to capture and convert the solar energy into electricity. However, instead of using the solar heat directly, it is also used indirectly to generate electricity as in the case of larger solar power plants that capture the heat from the sun and subsequently use it to produce steam for powering a generator.

1. Water

Many parts of the developing world use solar energy to pump water in remote areas. Solar energy is also used to provide power to far off areas where direct supply from the grid cannot reach easily.

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing source of renewable energy in the world. Apart from being a clean power source, wind energy is one of the cheapest source of energy.

As the United States has plenty of wind, the use of wind energy can fairly reduce the country’s dependence on rapidly depleting natural resources.

Wind energy is not a new concept to generate power. Long ago, the Egyptians used wind energy to sail their ships on the Nile River over 5,000 years ago. In Persia, windmills were developed about 500 to 900 A.D. for grinding grains and pumping water. The same concept has been modernized to generate electricity.

Water is pumped deep into the earth where it  is converted into stream and thus geothermal energy is generated. The stream produced is then pumped up to another shaft and thus electricity is produced with this action. The stream is then cooled and again converted to water, through the other shaft, it is then rolled back and thus the process again continues creating a cycle.

Advantages Of Using Geothermal Energy

Before considering to favor this form of energy, we must take into consideration some aspects of this type of energy. Lets have a closer look are the advantages of using geothermal energy.

Environment Friendly Product

Global warming, the hottest issue of today and is caused mainly due to  pollution.  Geothermal energy gets rid of  this pollution, and has no contribution to the greenhouse effect. Its power stations don’t take up more space,  it doesn’t have serious impact on the environment.

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You’d be forgiven for casting your mind to the lethargic Texan plains of the west at the mention of wind turbines. But check this out, there are far more ways to capture renewable wind energy, and I think you might even agree that you’ll be tempted to try some of these just for their unorthodox nature! Oh and just to give credit where credit is due, Texas does come out on top as far as wind power in the U.S is concerned.

Urban Chic

Rotating Skyscrapers

Nope, you didn’t misread that, that’s what it say’s, Rotating Skyscrapers. And it probably won’t come as a surprise when I tell you Dubai’s the place to find it! Every single floor of this building will be able to move to the current of the wind. Imagine that? Never having to stare at the same view instead of instead of actually working anymore?

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What is the purest form of power generation? The unanimous answer is Wind Energy. As Wind Energy has numerous benefits like no pollution, no burning of fossils and a clean setup. Although, it should not be perceived that it’s a facile setup unit. Various factors combine to make an impact on the amount of energy you can generate out of wind.

Power in the Wind

It’s vital to understand the relation of wind speed data with power production. Therefore, the power is proportional to the wind speed cubed. It is important to know the wind speed precisely, because any error is magnified when calculating power.

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Tidal energy is used to generate electricity through the use of tidal energy generators. By placing large underwater turbines in areas with high tidal movements, they are used to capture the kinetic motion of the ebbing and surging of ocean tides in order to generate electricity.

Tidal power is a great source of renewable energy, offering great potential for future power and electricity generation due to the massive size of the oceans.

Advantages of Tidal Energy

• Apart from the initial installation cost, tidal power is free.
• Tidal energy produces no greenhouse gases or any other kind of pollution.
• It requires no fuel.
• Electricity is produced reliably.

Hydropower, or water-power is power that is generated from the energy of moving water, which may be harnessed for many useful purposes.

Before the availability of commercial electric power became widespread, hydro power was used for irrigation, and used to operate various machines, such as watermills, textile machines, sawmills, dock cranes, and domestic lifts.

Hydropower is one of the oldest methods used to harness energy, and has been used for hundreds of years. Water wheels and watermills were built in India; water powered mills produced flour from grain in Imperial Rome, and were also used for sawing timber and stone.

The power generated from a wave of water released from a tank was used to extract the metal ores in a method known as hushing. This was extensively used in Britain in the Medieval and later periods to extract lead and tin ores. The same method later evolved into hydraulic mining when used during the California gold rush.

According to the International Energy Agency, it is possible to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 2741 Mt by 2030 through renewable energy by using accelerated environmental policies.

The executive director of IEA, Nobuo Tanaka, explained that if the world continued on the basis of today’s energy and climate policies, the consequences of climate change would be severe. It should be understood that energy is at the heart of the problem, and so we must aim at the core of the solution.

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There are some huge, new power plants being installed all around the world. PG&E has contracted with a 250 MW and a 500 MW solar plant in California. Another 250 MW integrated solar plant/manufacturing facility is being built in India.

The Clinton Foundation has decided to build a similar 5,000 MW facility in a different part of India. At the beginning of the summer a new 10 MW thin-film facility was claiming the record for that category and a 400 MW solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert was big news.

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